Call of Duty Playlist Free of SBMM Has Been Considered

Following up on its initial discussion about Call of Duty’s skill-based matchmaking implementation from earlier in the year, Activision and its Call of Duty developers published another “white paper” this week to talk more about the controversial matchmaking system. This latest deep dive into SBMM talked more about how the Call of Duty creators feel it creates a fair and balanced system that prevents matches from constantly being blowouts which would naturally deter player from engaging with the Call of Duty games for long periods of time. The discussion also confirmed, however, that the Call of Duty teams have entertained the idea of a matchmaking playlist that doesn’t take skill into account at all, though it’s unclear if we’ll ever actually get that.

The discussion about the possibility of a SBMM-free playlist was how the Call of Duty creators capped the latest white paper with a question and answer about the topic found at the end. It was asked if the Call of Duty devs have considered a “single core multiplayer playlist that does not use skill as a factor in matchmaking” with the following giving as a response:

“Call of Duty has considered this option, and the team will continue to explore,” the paper said. “Historical testing reveals that low- and mid-skill players would be unlikely to participate in such a playlist. As a match can only be created from players actively searching for a playlist, the likely result would be matches composed solely of high-skill players.”

If a playlist such as that one were implemented, there’d be three distinct tiers of skill-focused playlists: the normal ones we have now with SBMM enabled, ranked playlists with SBMM where the experience is more intense, and the hypothetical SBMM-free one. As the Call of Duty creators pointed out, it’s difficult to imagine the latter playlist being populated with enough players who care about SBMM to make it so that there are actually enough players to pull from with the likely result being skilled players who’d be complaining about SBMM regardless.

The discussion also addressed the Ranked Play situation wherein many players say that casual games should be void of SBMM. If people want to play against others of their own skill level, many say that they should just go play ranked.

“Ranked Play is designed to deliver an expressly competitive environment; accordingly, players must qualify for access to Ranked Play modes,” the Call of Duty creators said. “Many players who have qualified for Ranked Play still choose to enter the game in non-ranked playlists. For new players and those who do not participate in Ranked Play, it’s important they can contribute meaningfully to their team and their own personal in-game achievements.”

Another matchmaking series paper is on the way, too, and will talk more about SBMM and ranked games.